FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT LANDLORDS - PAGE 2

WILLIAMSBURG — Just over a month after the City Council approved raising occupancy caps in certain situations from three unrelated people to four, the ordinance is heading back to the Planning Commission for revision. But this time the contentious change to the infamous "three-person rule" is being altered to make it less cumbersome for landlords to obtain permission to house four renters under one roof. The new allowance was made following months of heated debate among the city, college, residents and students.

Williamsburg officials expect to rewrite a controversial law regarding inspection of rental properties as a result of legislation the General Assembly passed this week. The House of Delegates approved it last month, and the Senate followed suit Monday. The bill reflects a lot of negotiation and a successful compromise among representatives of municipal governments, landlords, state legislators and other interested parties, said City Attorney Joe Phillips. He said he would expect the governor to sign the legislation.

Barring actually buying a house, signing a lease on a home may be the most stressful thing ever invented. Leases make me nervous because signing one means: I'm contractually obligated to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to live in someone else's house, even if it doesn't have air conditioning or water pressure. I might have a hard time ditching the house before the contract expires, even if I hate some of my neighbors and their annoying habits. So far, I've been pretty lucky in finding good homes and good landlords.

Several years ago, when Joyce Kretschmer signed up a new tenant for one of the apartments she manages, she had no idea he had a record of evictions and police convictions. If she had, Kretschmer said, she never would have let the man move into one of the 104 two-bedroom apartments she manages at the Gateway Townhouse Apartments in Hampton. Several months later, Kretschmer said, she evicted him for not paying the rent. She said she found out later that he had given her someone else's Social Security number and had been evicted from at least four other apartments, including the complex right across the street from hers.

After losing $5,000 on one tenant, Peninsula landlord Mary Saylor decided to do everything in her power to prevent it from happening to her again. That was last spring. This week, Saylor began seeking clients for her franchise of National Tenant Network, a company that provides client landlords with information about tenants who have broken leases or been evicted from their apartments. The company stresses is not a screening company, said president and founder Ed Byczynski.

ISLE OF WIGHT Web site helps renters, landlords find housing The Planning Council has created Housing Connect, an affordable housing database available to prospective renters, landlords and service agencies helping families find affordable housing. Search by logging onto www.housingconnect.org. Housing Connect is available for community listings within Isle of Wight, Suffolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Norfolk and Virginia Beach. Landlords and property managers can list available rental properties at no charge.

Three months after getting on her own for the first time in several years, Theresa Caldwell is wondering if it is worth it. When the water pipes froze in her two-bedroom trailer, the maintenance worker in the trailer park was unsure how to get the water flowing again. When the park manager said it was Caldwell's responsibility to repair the pipes, she turned to a friend, a plumber, for help. "It's not my friend's responsibility to come out and fix the water," she said. "It's their responsibility."

Barry Davis said he would never have dreamed of opening a clone of his popular Heartbreak Cafe restaurant and nightclub in the Newmarket Shopping Center - until a hard-pressed landlord came up with a deal he said was too good to refuse: To lure Davis' hot nightspot into a vacant 10,000-square-foot space, the landlord gave him more than $380,000 to help renovate the space into a club, Davis said. And he recently got two years' worth of free rent on a 7,000-square-foot expansion.

For nearly a decade, I've been a renter. Like most of my kind, I've learned to endure the restrictions of tenant life. I know how to hang pictures and mirrors with a minimum of nails. I know how to fashion paper towel racks that don't bust through the kitchen cabinet. I know how to transform radiators into bookshelves with just a few pieces of plywood. Most importantly, I know how to haul my stuff from place to place on a moment's notice. I've rented my current home for nearly two years, and I've only now gotten comfortable with the idea that I might not move for a while.

Monday's question: Should landlords be able to refuse unmarried couples? YES: 110 People own property, they should do as they please with it. ... As owners, why should they lower their own moral standards to accommodate someone else's? ... I thought this was America and the home of the free. Now people are dictating to people who have religious beliefs. Whose freedom is being impaired here? ... It's very difficult to get back rent or damages when the unmarried couples split up and go their separate ways.